General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnother tragic aspect to the way the Reagan administration ignored AIDs
was how it affected people with disabilities.
One lesser known aspect of the epidemic was what it did to the community of people with hemophilia. The pharmaceutical companies knew early on that blood factor--the clotting agent extracted from whole blood that people with hemophilia take to control their disease--was potentially contaminated and thus potentially deadly, but rather than warn the public and work to solve the problem, the industry hid the truth and the Reagan/Bush FDA was complicit in that deception. As a result, fully one quarter of people with hemophilia in the US died in what is known in the disability rights movement as "the Hemophilia Holocaust." Not only did people with hemophilia get infected but, because they were unaware of the danger, some of them also unknowingly infected their spouses and lovers.
Much of this could have been averted if the Reagan administration hadn't been filled with homophobic bigots, and with sociopathic apologists for the pharmaceutical industry.
The Committee of Ten Thousand--a grassroots organization of people with hemophilia and their allies--finally tore the mask off this horrific cover-up. A good book on this is "Dying in Vein: Blood, Deception...Justice" by Kathy Seward MacKay and Stacy Milbouer.
To in any way praise the way the Reagans handled the AIDS crisis is an insult to the victims, their loved ones, and to the many courageous people who forced the nation finally to pay attention to a public health crisis of the first magnitude. We'll never know how many deaths could have been prevented if only the Reagans hadn't botched the initial federal response.
To think and say otherwise is a travesty that turns history on its head.
uppityperson
(115,674 posts)I figure he is dead because of his often he got factor 8 to keep from being crippled.
Too many people were hurt by the Reagan administration's actions on HIV.
mountain grammy
(26,571 posts)Very well said.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Lyme is far more prevalent, and rather than ignoring it, the government, insurance companies, CDC, and the Infectious Disease Society of America are actively attacking doctors who treat it. Research is banned. Patients are not dying; they are being murdered.
Will we never learn?
JEB
(4,748 posts)were cold hearted ruthless bigots especially on the AIDS situation. One would have to have their head deeply up their own ass to not know this or perhaps agree with them.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)I'm still trying to figure out how anyone in our Party could think like that at all.
liberalfromaustin21
(61 posts)A terrible president, overall.
moondust
(19,917 posts)I've never before heard anybody suggest that the Reagans were some kind of leaders on HIV/AIDS. Quite the opposite.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)The consequences of deliberate meanness can go in unknowable directions.